2007-12-22

CALGARY -- A protest planned for Friday afternoon in Calgary to condemn alleged violent and racist postings has been cancelled after an apology from the Western Standard magazine.

Two human rights complaints against the online magazine also were dropped after the Western Standard's owner apologized, said the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.

"In the spirit of Eid al-Adha and Christmas, Imam Syed Soharwardy has decided to withdraw his complaint from the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa," the group stated in a press release.

Soharwardy said he had invited Matthew Johnston, owner of the Western Standard, to visit Al Madinah Calgary Islamic Centre and talk to the Muslim community on any Friday.

The comments appeared on the Shotgun Blog of the Western Standard website.

The entry, dated Dec. 5 and written by a user calling himself 'Templar,' said, "there is no such thing as innocent Muslims."

Templar went on to write, "They must all be killed. All of them."

"This is absolutely pure hate-mongering," said Soharwardy earlier this week. "It's an abuse of freedom of speech. It's against Canadian (hate) laws."

The original Dec. 2 posting that sparked the user comments was written by former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant. He was discussing complaints by the Canadian Islamic Congress against Maclean's magazine.

It was the anonymous response to Levant's posting that angered Muslim leaders.

Levant, who no longer owns the website or the Western Standard name, said he doesn't personally agree with the comments, but argued they should be protected as free speech.

The Western Standard website initially said the comments were protected by the principle of freedom of speech, but added changes were in the works for the blog.

While I'm sure Johnson and Levant's pocketbooks and still-attached skulls are appreciating what happened, I'm certainly not. Let them have their protest. Have some of Ezra's friends there with cameras, getting close up photos of every single one of them. Post them on the blog the next day. Make it abundantly clear that they aren't the only ones who know how to do a half-decent intimidation.